The IRS collected $2.49 trillion in taxes last year (net of refunds). But of this amount, $891 billion was from payroll tax.

According to FICA and the Social Security Act of 1935, however, this amount is tied directly to funding Social Security and Medicare. It is not to be used for interest payments.

Based on this data, the amount of tax revenue that the US government had available to pay for its operations was $1.599 trillion in FY2013.

This means they actually spent approximately 26% of their available tax revenue just to pay interest last year… a much higher number than 17%.

Uncle Sam paused for a moment and said, “Those details will be worked out. While that may happen, younger people will take part in this program too, so they will help pay for your retirement when the time comes.”

Moe could barely contain himself. “Isn’t that a Ponzi scheme? I thought they were illegal?”

Uncle Sam paused and said, “Ponzi schemes are illegal, unless they are run by the government. What’s your problem? I mean, come on! Doesn’t everyone trust the government?”

51% of the audience cheered wildly while the other 49% remained silent.

Again, 51% jumped to their feet screaming wildly, glaring at Larry, Curly, and Moe. The screaming would not stop. 49% quietly headed to the exits with the three stooges leading the way. Moe, speaking in almost a whisper, commented, “It seems the real stooges are the ones who fall for the scheme.” The 49% nodded their heads in silent agreement.

Personally, I am a registered independent and have been for over 50 years. Both political parties have pushed the government to make $128 trillion worth of promises—with our money—that it cannot afford to pay. What a terrible burden to place on future generations!

Our national debt clock shows government liabilities of $1.1 million per taxpayer. They spend our money to buy votes to stay in power. The system is beyond repair.

Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. 42 Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour[f] your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. 44 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

David Cameron joined Barack Obama, Angela Merkel and Xi Jinping and other world leaders to play a “nukes on the loose” war game to see how they would cope with a terrorist nuclear attack.

The German chancellor grumbled at being asked to play games and take tests with the Prime Minister, US and Chinese presidents around a table with dozens of heads of state at a nuclear summit in The Hague.

Her complaints were overruled because Mr Obama was keen on the idea and in on the surprise.

No. You asked me where the market is headed from here. But to invest our clients’ money on the basis of speculation being driven by the Fed’s misguided policies doesn’t seem like the best thing to do with our clients’ money.

We invest our clients’ money based on our seven-year prediction. And over the next seven years, we think the market will have negative returns. The next bust will be unlike any other, because the Fed and other centrals banks around the world have taken on all this leverage that was out there and put it on their balance sheets. We have never had this before. Assets are overpriced generally. They will be cheap again. That’s how we will pay for this. It’s going to be very painful for investors.

The dismal list of financial executive deaths has recently increased to 11 in the last few months. Speculation has surrounded many of these deaths (and suicides) as to the reasoning; none more than the first – William Broeksmit, an executive who worked in Deutsche Bank’s risk function and advised senior leadership who hanged himself in his South Kensington home in late January. However, as the WSJ reports, we now know why this poor man felt compelled to take his own life: he was “anxious about various authorities investigating areas of the bank where he worked” (and yes, we are well aware of the grammatical and temporal impossibilities suggested by this article’s title).

The arrests came days after a New Jersey teenager was accused of unlawfully entering the site, eluding an inattentive security guard and spending about two hours atop the 1,776-foot-tall tower. The skyscraper, still under construction, crowns the rebuilt World Trade Center, a project steeped in security concerns.

And how did he get back to Canada. An airplane? If so, Ebola is an airborne disease. Anyone flying on that plane, particularly those seated next to him, the flight attendants, and anyone who came in close contact with him would be a potential carrier. Since they would not want to alarm anyone, they would contact people quietly. My guess is someone leaked the story.

The Russian foreign ministry proclaimed the recent robbing of passengers traveling from Russia to Moldova (via Ukraine), by an ultra-nationalist Insurgent Army, is a manifestation of “anarchy” and was “bewildered” by the refusal of the Ukrainian police to take any action (against the groups that are largely responsible for the overturn of Yanukoych’s government just a few weeks ago). However, as RT reports, that changed this morning as the notorious Ukrainian ultra-nationalist known as Sashko Bilyi was shot dead during a police raid against his gang. The story just gets worse though as now the activist ‘right sector’ has stated it will seek revenge for the killing of their leader.

But wait…just when you thought you had it all figured out…

Ukraine Police now claims they didn’t kill the Right Sector Leader Muzychko. He has commited suicide.
Take a look at that image above and tell us how he shot himself in the chest and smashed his brains in all by himself?

The second the German industrialists make it clear they are shifting their allegiance to the Eurasian Axis and away from the Group of 6 (ex Germany) most insolvent countries in the world, that will be the moment the days of the current reserve petrocurrency will be numbered.

Last week we reported that while the West was busy alienating Russia in every diplomatic way possible, without of course exposing its crushing overreliance on Russian energy exports to keep European industries alive, Russia was just as busy cementing its ties with China, in this case courtesy of Europe’s most important company, Gazprom, which is preparing to announce the completion of a “holy grail” natural gas supply deal to Beijing. We also noted the following: “And as if pushing Russia into the warm embrace of the world’s most populous nation was not enough, there is also the second most populated country in the world, India.” Today we learn just how prescient this particular comment also was, when Reuters reported that Rosneft, the world’s top listed oil producer by output, may join forces with Indian state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp to supply oil to India over the long term, the Russian state-controlled company said on Tuesday.

Nothing to see here, move along. While it appears the Russians are willing to pay the price of modest sanctions from the west to ‘liberate’ their fellow countrymen, the fallout from further tension with Ukraine could “boomerang” once again on the divided nation. As RBC Ukraine reports, the Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Yuriy Prodan said at a press conference today that “oil reserves will last for 28-29 days” in Ukraine. After that, the negotiation begins as Ukraine already owes billions for previously delivered gas – as Ukraine’s storage levels more than halved in the last 3 months.

The lack of DOJ action against an unrepentant federal vote fraudster combined with Richardson’s lionization by Sharpton and the organization that sponsored the rally demonstrates how the Justice Department is facilitating a culture of brazen criminality on the eve of the 2014 midterm elections.

Everything above makes sense, except for the implicit suggestion that Mrs. Obama seeing an Obamao caricature would be taken by the first lady as an insult. Why?

Actually one thing is confusing :

The T-shirts, which portray Mr. Obama dressed in a Communist Party army green cap with a red star on it, have become common tourist trinkets at the Wall during Mr. Obama’s time in office. Prices of the Obamao shirt vary based on haggling capabilities of the buyer.
But shouldn’t the shirts be free, if only for those eligible for free healthcare and Obamaphones?

Are you an illegal immigrant whose waiver to stay in the country was denied because of your criminal past? Well, you’re in luck, because the Obama Administration may let you stay in the country anyway.

Defense of the Constitution is not an option. It is essential to the roles of sworn officials of the United States of America.

Do any believe that all but a few abrogate this oath daily, in ways ever more dire? Devious gradual degradation has devolved into direct repudiation of sworn duties. They violate not only the letter of Constitutional law, but the very intents of our Founders. For some, the Oath they swore seems to have worn away under the burden of public office. But most show a grim and gleeful desire to destroy the very ethos upon which American greatness was built; to undermine the foundations of liberty, and the prosperity it once created.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who last week held talks with President Barack Obama at the White House, met Monday with the foreign ministers of the League’s 22 member states, to update them on the outcome of the talks, those present at the summit said.

According to the draft of the final resolution, obtained by AFP, the Arab states declare their “absolute and categorical refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state”. The resolution also “rejects all pressure to this effect on the Palestinian leadership”, a likely reference to American efforts to keep the negotiations going after their April deadline.

Busy or not, for now, the banks may have survived following yet more capital infusions from the local government, but what happens when the default wave that has claimed solar, coal, and real estate developers finally impacts a deposit-holding institution? How will China – which has far more total deposits within its banking system than in the US (since the US banks fund themselves mostly using ultra-short term, overnight shadow funding) – survive a nationwide bank run we wonder?

Now, less than a year later, we are suffering through exactly the same sort of miserable song-and-dance routine, just with a different actor playing the Gene Wilder role. If the Fed was surprised by the rotten tomatoes thrown up on the stage last year, they ain’t seen nothing yet.

Most likely explanation at this point: The aircraft is being turned into a weapon

“‘God’s Not Dead’ earned an incredible $8.56 million,” the site noted, which placed the film at No. 5 at the box office this past weekend. “That ranks seventh all-time among faith-based movies, and ranks first among those opening in fewer than 1,000 theaters. It’s a bit below ‘Courageous’ ($9.1 million), but above ‘Fireproof’ ($6.8 million).”

Note to Christians and those who believe the Bible: The producer of the movie “Noah,” a self-professed atheist, says he is proud of the fact that he’s taken a story inspired by God’s word and turned it into something so secular.

Director Darren Aronofsky called his movie “the least biblical biblical film ever made,” The Telegraph reported. He also claimed his leading character, Noah, was the “first environmentalist,” something that suggests the movie storyline doesn’t exactly follow the Bible’s.

Immersive tech, NFL players and a 3D printed heart. At first glance you might think they have nothing in common.
But they do. I’ll explain shortly.

First, let’s look at each of these three things and why they’re so important to each other…
First off, the 3D printed heart. Now, this isn’t a fully functional 3D printed heart. Although there are technologies out there right now that mean this could be a possibility in the future. No, this is a 3D printed replica of a heart. In other words scientists took a 3D scan of a patient’s heart, and then 3D printed it as a solid form model.

MC10 is a company that grew from the research of Professor John Rogers from the University of Illinois. MC10 isn’t just another ‘wearable tech’ company either. Their aim is, ‘To redefine the interface between electronics and the human body. In other words – make humans more superhuman.‘

They make a whole range of electronics that flex, bend and stretch. These electronics are vitally important for the future of immersive tech.

In a world where everything has sensors, processors and electronics in it, these devices need to bend, stretch and flex. And MC10 is at the forefront of making this happen.

we’re going to be able to literally ingest information. Once information is in your bloodstream, some kind of mechanism could deposit the information in the brain. You could take a pill and learn English or the works of Shakespeare. He said little else on the subject, but Negroponte assured the audience that the idea is not as ridiculous as it seems.

Negroponte is basically hypothesizing a pill you can swallow to instantly learn French or computer programming or anything else, something akin to the moment in “The Matrix” when Neo “learns kung fu” by interfacing his brain with a computer.

Negroponte’s prediction has more basis in reality than you likely expect — scientists can already watch memory-forming molecules come together in the brain as a physical representation of new knowledge. Negroponte is merely talking about doing it without the human being consciously involved.

The games are literally mean — Victor is programmed to trash-talk his competitors.

Last week marked the fourth anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. In a 5-4 ruling, the court ruled that corporations are entitled to the same free speech rights as individual humans as guaranteed under the First Amendment.

and there was given to it to give a spirit to the image of the beast, that also the image of the beast may speak, and [that] it may cause as many as shall not bow before the image of the beast, that they may be killed.

“While the transition of Internet stewardship from the U.S. may have been inevitable, it is unclear why the U.S. surrendered its greatest point of leverage prematurely,” Heritage writes. “Surrendering U.S.. oversight of ICANN was a key objective of many nations that wish to curtail freedom of the Internet.”

And as we should all know by now, international affairs tend to be dominated by whoever is most committed to realizing their key objectives.

Researchers are always looking at ways to harness the power of the human brain, and augment our grey matter—be it mind-controlled drones, brain-machine interfaces, or using brain scans to predict future criminals. But some scientists warn we shouldn’t go cyborg for at least another 100 years. Paul Werbos, a program manager at the National Science Foundation and one of the country’s leading neuroscientists, said that there could be dire consequences if we continue to experiment with the brain before we completely understand how it works. “We’re trying to reverse engineer the brain so we can understand it much better than we do,” Werbos said at a panel in Washington, D.C. discussing the state of the future. “But, with the state of technology right now, in 100 years we might be able to reverse engineer [a brain] the level of a mouse.”

The program was developed by three in-house Facebook researchers and a professor at Tel Aviv University.

Presented with little comment aside to ask… if ‘weather’ can do this much damage to the US economy and ‘faith’ in the wealth effect-building benefits of the US equity market are this weak, then there are a few uncomfortable truths about to punch some talking heads in the mouth…